Could you provide a brief explanation for the fiscal-layman of how this would work? How can the position of waiting for capital to come back from a borrowing party — the basic definition of holding debt — be converted into new investment in the borrowing party?

Walter Russell Mead

A private company can build a road or take over the maintenance of an existing one in exchange for the right to collect (regulated) tolls from users.

Walter Sobchak

Those assets would be another hostage to their good behavior.

Joe

In other words. Hey guys, we’re noticing Europe and thinking we might want to turn all these promise notes we’re holding into something more substantial.

Smart move, by them. I’m not sure it’s great for us.

Some Sock Puppet

Not a chance. I’d walk cross-country loaded down like a mule before I used a Chinese built road in my own country. And a toll-road on top of that?

The scariest idea I heard was buying Chinese made wind-mills. Any bets on how much SCADA-compromised code is present in that equipment?

We want the same problems of hacking, cracking, spying, bad supply in the pipes, trojans, and sub-par construction outsourced to these untrustworthy clowns and we want in it ever-present in our infastructure?

Even if that all seems paranoid raving, the fact is they’ve given us nothing to trust them over.

We have a real figure unemployment rate of around 15% and overcrowded prisons teeming with violence and testosterone where the taxpayer pays for cable and sex changes and soy-free diets, and you’re telling me we STILL need to outsource to the Chinese?

I can’t make sense of this world any more. It didn’t make sense much before, but at least it had a form of structure. Now it’s just utterly bewildering.

I’m not proud to say I’ve witnessed the death of commen sense in my lifetime.

I’m unemployed. I can drive a vehicle, learning to use construction equipment cannot be that hard. I can figure out a video game in 5 minutes, a few levers and physics are not that hard.

I can learn to pave a road. I can help dig a pit. This is not a hard concept.

Companies should do more on the job tranining. That’s the one significant thing I’ve noticed in 20 years of working. No one trains. They expect you to walk in knowing everything. It’s unrealistic and to all of our detriments.